B.V. Nagarathna

Justice B.V. Nagarathna is the daughter of former Chief Justice of India E.S. Venkataramaiah. She graduated from the Campus Law Centre, Delhi University in 1987 and enrolled as an advocate on 28 October 1987, practising constitutional, family, commercial, and arbitration matters.

She was elevated as Additional Judge of the Karnataka High Court on 18 February 2008 and became a Permanent Judge on 17 February 2010. She was appointed to the Supreme Court on 31 August 2021 and is poised to become the first woman Chief Justice of India on 25 September 2027.

She has authored 68 Supreme Court judgments across criminal (20%), civil (17%), family (10%), service (7%), taxation (6%), and constitutional law. Landmark rulings include striking down the remission for Bilkis Bano convicts, her sole dissent on demonetisation, and holding that free speech restrictions are limited to Article 19(2).